5 Reasons Why Pre-Wedding Background Checks Are Essential

Online background checks are life savers. I have heard from both men and women, professionals and home-makers and others from all walks of life. So i have decided to publish a list of the top 5 reasons that the bulk of the “Thank you ” emails i receive contain. I hope this enlightens you and possibly saves even one person from a life changing mistake, and in 99% of the cases all you need is a name and city or birth-date. Social security numbers are seldom needed and in some cases can be obtained from the search.

1. Undisclosed Debt by One or the other parties: I cant even count the number of emails i have received from individuals wishing they had done a credit check or online background check before the wedding. I will just give the general jist of one of these emails that i distinctly remember. A man wrote me and told me that he married a woman with over $35,000 in past credit card debt that she never disclosed to him before they were married. He only found out after the marriage when they went to find lending to purchase a house, which they were denied. In finding this huge sum of debt attached to himself as well as his new wife he ended the marriage, not because of the actual debt but because of the character flaw that he wasn’t aware of. “if she can lie about that she can lie about anything.” The debt he married into is still legally his even though the deceitful spouse isn’t. I have about 100 such stories in my gmail account memory. When you marry someone in debt you are agreeing to share that debt, knowingly or otherwise.

2. Abusive Behavior: I received an email from a woman in Tampa, Florida thanking me for saving her from an abusive man that she planned to marry but changed her mind weeks before the wedding. Apparently the future spouse had several domestic abuse cases in his file from 2 different marriages. The woman was unaware of any of this and only knew about one previous marriage. As a plus to this potential wedding made in hell he didn’t take her calling off the marriage well at all and forced her to leave the state to get away from the man. And ironically parole from one of the cases kept the man from leaving the state to harass her in her new state. She recently wrote me to tell me that she is now remarried and living a wonderful life so far. The ex was rearrested for beating on his girlfriend and parole violations. Of course she did a complete background check on her new husband using the guise of preparing early to seek financing for their post marriage home. “your service saved my life, thank you.”

3. Registered Sex offender: Even though this is one of the most common emails i get, they still affect me the hardest. I have received upwards of 200 emails where the sender ran a background check on their spouse or fiancee and found out they were registered sex offenders from other states, some on the run. One lady even found out that her fiancees name wasn’t even his name but his deceased brothers. She sent him to prison after discreetly turning him in. I have not heard from her since the email but I wrote a complete article about her bravery a few months back.I actually still get happy from these types of emails. It makes me feel a little like a hero, even though the people who send them are.

4. Criminal record, past or present: This is the #1 subject in the emails i receive and its also an obvious subject. If i had a quarter for all the people who found out that their significant others were criminals or had criminal records, i could open up a skyscraper in New York city and go head to head with Donald trump.

5. Lies or undisclosed personal information: I particularly remember one woman in Texas or Louisiana, cant remember which, but her soon to be husband had solicited a male prostitute just a month before she ran the check and 6 months before they were scheduled to marry. I felt pretty bad for her on that one, that one really got to me because they had been together for years before they decide to marry. The kids make it sadder.

Well now you know the Top 5 reasons why background checks saves lives before a marriage.